Sherry's House camp brings summer fun to kids with cancer

By Melissa McKeon, CORRESPONDENT

WORCESTER — Two-and-a-half-year-old Brendan Shanahan of Holden may not seem to be aware of it, but there's something that sets him apart from most children his age: Brendan was diagnosed at 17 months with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

"That first week was kind of a gut punch," his mother, Melinda Shanahan, recalls of the time just after her son was diagnosed.

The stress continues for the Shanahans, including Brendan's father, Chris Shanahan. A course of chemotherapy goes on, fortunately now, at home most of the time.

Brendan went into remission soon after receiving the initial chemotherapy treatments. The prognosis for young children who respond that way is good, near 90 percent recovery.

But for now, his life is quite different from most of his peers. Because chemotherapy destroys immunity, Brendan must avoid the usual childhood activities that involve being with other children who might have what is a trifling sniffle to them but could become life-threatening for Brendan.

He has a lot in common, though, with 4-year-old Olivia Keller of Leominster.

Olivia was just the age Brendan is now when her father, Timothy Keller, noticed a lump in her abdomen. Their child seemed active and healthy, so they waited a day to see if it would subside.

It didn't.

Olivia was eventually diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a rare form of kidney cancer. She's had her right kidney removed and underwent 18 months of chemotherapy.

Like Brendan, Olivia and her family, including her big sister Isabelle, 7, live in a different world.

It's a world where very small children have to undergo treatments that make them seem sicker, that keep them from the playground, from school, from camp.

It's a world where parents live in fear of side effects and recurrences of the disease and the terrible loss of part of their children's happy childhoods.

And it's a world where these youngsters' siblings endure some privation as well, as the attention goes to the disease.

In that seemingly dark world, there's a light that none of these families would call a small thing; it's a bright light in the darkness, and it's Why Me & Sherry's House on Pleasant Street.

This summer, Sherry's House is hosting a Summer Fun Camp for children and the siblings of children with cancer, a camp that makes them feel, for a time, just like other kids.

The organization for families with children with cancer has a wide range of services for these families, from offering a place to stay when families live too far away from treatment, to helping them find resources. But this summer, for the Shanahans and Kellers and many other families, it's giving that gift of normalcy that stands out.

The families heard about the programs at Sherry's House from the hospitals where their children were being treated, where volunteers and staff from Sherry's House come to offer coffee, doughnuts, toys for children and, most of all, information, support and comfort.

The program that offers this normal kids' experience to their children who are suffering from cancer, as well as the siblings of those children, is the brainchild of the late Margaret White, who had been with the organization since it began, and was the director of child and family services until she died last year.

Danielle Perron now carries that torch, with a simple message about the mission:

"So much of their childhood is taken away from them," Ms. Perron said. "For four weeks, they get to be like other kids."

The program is not just offering something to the children, either. For parents, it's a chance to get some respite from what is a grueling experience of watching their child going through treatment for cancer and worrying about the expense and about the future.

Giving their child a day at camp every day, or as often as they can, for a month in the summer is a time of rest.

Families who take part in the camp are often families who also receive support from Why Me's monthly parent support group. At camp, they also know they are leaving their children in a place where everyone involved is keenly aware that the health of these little campers shouldn't be risked by sending along a child with a stuffy nose.

"Here, all these parents know that everyone's in the same boat," Ms. Perron said. "They're aware of their children's blood count, they're aware of the risks."

Staff at Why Me who arrange these day-camp activities, are also aware. Great care is taken not to expose children to danger, but to still try to give them the fun day camp experience.

There is a theme each week, among them animals, carnivals, exploration, and sports and spree.

This year, the camp is serving 15 to 20 children a day. Most of them are 5- and 6-year-olds, Ms. Perron said. Children up to age 12 are welcome.

The day camp is free to these families who can send their children who are ill, the siblings of those children and the siblings of the children of past Why Me & Sherry's House clients, those children whose battle was lost, and whose siblings need something resembling normal fun just as much.